Verizon

Do you remember the schoolyard bully? That is what is happening in the case of Verizon's contractual dispute with its union workers ("Howard senior citizen facility feels effects of Verizon strike," Aug. 12). A tiny percentage of Americans like Ivan Seidenberg are compensated like Saudi princes not because they are vastly more productive than their employees, but simply because they possess the power to take what they want. They employ two basic strategies to justify this behavior: They claim that their compensation is commensurate with other executives who also possess the power to take what they want.

Strolling within a mile radius of Verizon Center Wednesday night must have made for an unusual sight: Thousands of young girls walked in the same direction - donning royal blue, synthetic wigs - and hoisting posters that read “Roar” and “It's my birthday” and “KatyCats.” Wednesday night marked pop queen Katy Perry's second night in D.C. for her Prismatic World Tour (she played here Tuesday, and kicked off the tour in North Carolina over...

Every morning after her alarm goes off, Rhodessa Bender gets up, makes the bed and reaches for the telephone. "I call the weather and decide what I'm going to put on for the day," she said. "The weather" is Verizon's telephone weather line, 936-1212. Since the days of rotary dials in the 1930s, it has been providing telephone users with the local temperature and forecast. And even today it comes not from robots, but from real people with names and, some say, personality. But on June 1, they're going to fall silent in the Maryland and Washington area codes, along with the phone company's dial-in time service — 844-1212.

Verizon Communications announced this week that its expanded Fios DVR television service is now available in the Baltimore region. The Quantum TV set top box can record six or 12 programs at once, depending on the customer's service plan, said Harry J. Mitchell, a Verizon spokesman. The box is capable of storing up to 200 hours of HD programming. The compact Quantum box replaces Fios existing hardware and can serve up to four additional televisions via a compact companion device.

45,000 Verizon workers are now on strike to stop the attack on the middle class. The reason? Despite record profits, Verizon is refusing to bargain and is demanding that its workers add to those profits from their own pockets. In the last four years alone, Verizon made more than $19 billion in profits and compensated their top five executives more than a quarter of a billion dollars. But apparently that's not enough. Now they're refusing to bargain. Starting on June 22 Verizon pushed proposals that would let them outsource more jobs, including sending jobs overseas, slash sick days, terminate pensions, eliminate benefits for workers who get hurt on the job and cut the health-care benefits they promised retirees.

State regulators proposed on Wednesday that Verizon's ability to raise rates on some basic telephone services be directly tied to the telecommunications giant's efforts to improve customer service – a potential outcome that would be a regulatory first in Maryland. The proposed order from the Maryland Public Service Commission comes amidst several ongoing cases dealing with complaints from tens of thousands of customers who experienced lengthy delays in customer service in 2007 and 2008.

As many as 300 Verizon customers in West Baltimore lost service Thursday after cables were cut, the company said. The outage to telephone and DSL service affected state government offices, small businesses and residents, Verizon spokeswoman Sandra Arnette said. Service was expected to be restored by midday Friday, she said. Arnette said the damage to equipment in an alley off West North Avenue near Pennsylvania Avenue was the first act of vandalism reported in Baltimore since Sunday, Aug. 7, when members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers began a strike after their contract expired, she said.

The Howard County Office of Consumer Affairs is investigating Verizon's sales practices after the office received a half-dozen complaints, county officials said. Officials allege that the company's sales representatives have attempted to confuse customers and overcharge them for services they did not ask for when selling packages for cable, phone and Internet service. Sharyn Tolkach, a teacher from Columbia, said she saw an item on her bill called "cyber tube" for five months before she could get Verizon representatives to remove the $14.95 charge from her monthly statement.

Dan Rodricks is indeed a lucky man. He received an apology from Verizon, and they are "reviewing his experience in order to learn from it and prevent similar situations … in the future" ( "Verizon to Rodricks: We're sorry," Feb. 28). Wow! Perhaps Mr. Rodricks should ask others to share their Verizon stories, which could be printed as a special edition to The Sun. These would be reviewed as a learning experience for Verizon. And maybe we could all get an apology. Peg McAllen, Towson

Emails and phone calls from readers of this column who have had an unsatisfying experience with Verizon continue to come in — and Saturday, a pleasant woman who walks regularly through my neighborhood stopped by to tell me all about her unpleasant business with the humongous telecommunications company. She'd made a couple of appointments to have a Verizon technician come to her house to investigate a staticky line, and the tech never showed. That's a common complaint. I described a couple of frustrating experiences with Verizon customer service in columns in January and February — complaints that, placed alongside tsunami in Japan, seem wholly trivial.

NBA playoffs Wizards confident despite poor home playoff record The Washington Wizards are 1-3 at Verizon Center in the 2014 playoffs, winning only in Game 4 against the Chicago Bulls, but they believe they can fend off elimination again tonight and upset the top-seeded Indiana Pacers, who lead their Eastern Conference semifinal series, 3-2. "Definitely, we feel like we can finish this," backup big man Drew Gooden said. "We know, you guys know and they know this series could be the other way around, with us leading.

Verizon Wireless said Friday that it is adding more than 100 retail and customer service jobs in Maryland, a move that comes on the heels of plans to cut about 380 jobs at a Hanover call center. The new positions will be full time and come with health insurance, Verizon said. They're part of a 300-job expansion the company plans in Maryland, Washington and Virginia. Verizon said the hiring is unrelated to cuts at the Hanover location, announced last week in a call-center restructuring.

About 380 Verizon Wireless employees will lose their jobs at a Hanover call center as part of a national restructuring in which five centers will close and 3,000 workers will need to transfer to new offices or apply for new company jobs, the carrier told workers Wednesday. The Hanover center will not close, but will become a call center for government agency and business customers as opposed to individual consumers. It will be staffed by 320 workers who will move there from a Verizon call center in Laurel, which will remain open for other functions, said Paul Macchia, a Verizon Wireless spokesman.

It had been years since Tammy Bresnahan dialed 936-1212 to hear the Baltimore-area weather forecast, and when she called it again last month, she was surprised to learn the once-popular hot line had been disconnected. "The weather's been kind of unpredictable lately," said the 54-year-old advocacy director for AARP Maryland. "I needed someone to tell me what's going to happen, when it's going to happen and how it's going to happen. " But Bresnahan can take heart that the beloved service once considered an anachronism is back.

NBA Wizards owner Leonsis explains arena roof leak Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis wasn't in attendance Saturday at Verizon Center for his team's fourth straight home loss, but he did address roof leaks that contributed to two delays totaling 57 minutes in a 114-107 loss to the Houston Rockets. "The big freeze this past week might have created a small fissure in roofing materials, and as the rain came on and some ice was melting, some water was able to seep in," Leonsis wrote on his personal blog, "Ted's Take.

In an effort to help its customers reverse the company's observation that most people use only about 10 percent of their cell phones' capabilities, Verizon has begun turning some of its retail outlets into what it calls "Smart Stores," with one of the first being in Bel Air. "Customers are not just walking through the door for handsets anymore," Rob Lang, manager at the Bel Air Verizon Wireless store, said in a press release. "They're walking in to find wireless solutions to help them lose weight, sleep better, stay healthy, reduce energy consumption, save energy costs, and keep their homes, kids and cars safe.

State regulators proposed Wednesday that Verizon's ability to raise rates on some basic telephone services be directly tied to the company's efforts to improve customer service - a requirement that would be a regulatory first in Maryland. The proposed order from the Maryland Public Service Commission is in response to complaints from nearly 80,000 customers who experienced lengthy delays in customer service in 2007 and 2008. "We're hoping that now this will provide the path for Verizon to remedy its long-standing statewide ... service problems," said Theresa Czarski of the state Office of the People's Counsel, which represents consumers' interests before the PSC. "This time Verizon won't be able to increase prices until they show they've made real strides in fixing service quality problems."

Verizon Communications Inc., the nation's second-largest phone company, said yesterday that it would freeze the guaranteed pension plan covering 50,000 of its managers and expand their 401(k) plans instead. In freezing the plan, the company will pay workers the benefits they have already earned but will not let them build up additional benefits. Verizon also said it would contribute less to the health care benefits of those managers when they retire. Over all, the company hopes to save about $3 billion over the next decade by taking these steps.

Brie Daugherty doesn't object to the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. replacing a gas line in her Arbutus neighborhood. It's the flooded basement - courtesy of a sewer line broken by a BGE contractor - that bothers her. "Obviously the infrastructure needs to be replaced, I'm not doubting that," she said. "And I have no problem helping to pay for it. I do have a problem helping to pay for that when my house is damaged and it's like pulling nails to get it fixed. " She's not the only aggravated utility customer.

I'll admit it from the get-go: I'm an Elton John nut. I love the man, his music, his melodies, his voice. So let me start not at the beginning, but at the end of last night's concert at the packed Verizon Center in Washington. When the show was over, I started replaying the highlights of the concert in my head. And I began thinking of the songs that he didn't play. I wasn't dwelling out of regret or disappointment, but rather out of amazement. He could have played another three-hour concert of the songs that he didn't perform.